Community Responses, Enforcement of the Law of Child and its Implications on Child Sexual Assault in Arusha Tanzania

Enforcement of the law means maintaining public order through prevention, detection, and investigation of crime and apprehension of criminals (Alvendia et al. 2018).Tanzania government, ratified the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) and enacted the Law of Child in 2009 for the purpose of protecting and responding to violence against children who are victimized. This study was conducted in Arusha region while involving 299 children age 10-17 both boys and girls. Arusha was selected because of having high prevalence of child sexual assault records than any other regions in the country. The objective of the study was to examine community responses on the enforcement of the law of the child to eliminate child sexual assault in Tanzania. The objective of the study was to examine low level of law of child enforcement influence in the increase on child sexual assault in Tanzania. The study used a multistage random sampling technique to select the districts involved in this study. Further, the study used both quantitative and qualitative approach for the triangulation of data, while using ecological system perspective. Methods of data collection were questionnaire and interview guide which was analyze by descriptive statistics and themes. The main findings of the study was; the communities lack adequate knowledge of the law of child act 2009.The communities rely on traditions ways of dealing with child sexual assault issues than reporting cases to police. The perpetrators of child sexual assault are not tried in accordance to legal procedures, instead they dealt traditionally. Therefore, low enforcement of the law lead to persistent child sexual assault. This appeal for supervision of law enforcement system and sensitization of the general public. Keywords: Child Sexual Assault, Law Enforcement, Ecological system